You’ll notice I haven’t posted a lot of my replicas as of late. Serendipitously, the gates of Warner Brothers opened wide when I recently did some work for a license holder. Couple that with Mina Lima’s fantastic collection of prints at The Printorium (the exact files, but not the exact medium) and it would seem all my replica dreams have come true. That’s when I realized that my love of making replica props is rooted in the hunt for the elusive details other people might miss. When I get together with other replica makers, that’s the geeking out I enjoy: Pointing out what’s exact, what isn’t, and why.

It’s rare that I find other people as obsessed as I am with wanting to create an exact duplicate. When I read Celestial Toystore’s write up of his process to make the perfect replica Sherlock coat, I knew I’d found a kindred spirit: http://www.sherlockcoat.com/ 3D scanned buttons with color matching! That is a quest for accuracy.

I don’t think it’s about fooling people. It’s about knowing you were able to perfectly recreate a process.

At the moment, I’ve given replicating a bit of a rest. I’m filling my toolbox with new skills and waiting for something to grab my eye.

It’s been postponed for months, so I was excited when I finally received notification that Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones had finally shipped. Unfortunately, it wasn’t what I was hoping for. I had watched the preview video, and was excited to see the costumes, props, and the world of GoT in depth.

The outside of the book is pretty. While the cover is plastic-y, it has a gorgeous deboss with each House’s sigil animal. The end papers are also well-designed with the various House sigils on a checkered background.

There’s the pre-requisite section on George R. R. Martin and the series head writers, but then, the book becomes less about what one would thing going “inside Game of Thrones” would be (props, costumes, sets, locations, special effects) and more a crib sheet for lazy viewers with sections like “The White Walkers: A Brief History” or a full-page spread of a House’s family tree.

That’s probably my biggest problem with the book: The design feels like a lot of wasted space. The chapter breaks are huge two-page spreads of Celtic knotwork and calligraphy fonts – a shame in a book that’s only 192 pages long. There are some two-page image spreads, but most of are simply promotional photos that can be seen online or if I pressed pause on my HDTV. Lesser-seen set photos or behind-the-scenes photos were relegated to tiny inserts in the text. Now, this could be due to a lack of resolution on the behind-the-scenes photos. All the spread images are crisp and clean, the paper stock and printing quality of the book are excellent.

In case you can’t read the text, this is Jon Snow. I guess there were a bunch of left-over pics from this photoshoot.

While a great scene in the show, why was this chosen as a two-page spread?

Design-wise, the book is all over the place. Some pages have a parchment background with more Celtic clip-art elements and massive illuminated calligraphy. Some pages are a more traditional white. Even the reading font changes from an antique-style roman font to a more modern roman font.

Content-wise, the book maintains a good balance of between explaining plot elements and insider commentary. I liked the multiple perspectives on characters, locations, and storylines. Adding Martin’s thoughts as well made things even more interesting.

In the end, I wish I’d just bought this for the Kindle so I could have turned off the design and just read the text.

*Cough* *Cough* Hello? Anyone there? Sorry I’ve been away for so long. Give me a moment to brush off the cobwebs and dust and I’ll show you a piece that’s been a year in the making. It all started last summer. . . Read more.

Wow, this piece is definitely not for someone with a weak neck. It’s big and heavy, and the chain is long. It’s made of pewter, and the metal is definitely soft enough that it would dent if dropped from any kind of height. When un-clipped from the chain, the container opens, and on mine the hinges were a little stiff and sometimes made it difficult to open or close the container. The container doesn’t screw down, the lid is closed when the container is in the outer holder. I still haven’t seen any shots of this in the film, so I have no idea if this is accurate or not. Last night, I glanced through The Hunger Games: Official Illustrated Movie Companion, but I couldn’t find a single picture (even in the area labeled PROPS).

This is the official pin for the movie. At first glance, I thought it vastly different from the Scholastic pin, but looking at the photos they appear to maybe even be the same sculpt. For some reason, with the antiqued brass the bird looks off on the movie replica pin. It looks more like a mutant duck than a mutant blue jay. It’s a lot thinner than the Scholastic pin, and the back is not a traditional clasp, but is instead a push-pin back.

UPDATE: I decided to take a side-by-side photo of the movie replica pin and the Scholastic pin. I think the sculpts ARE different, but very similar. The movie pin is a cast bronze-like metal and the Scholastic pin is metal plated gold.

Hold on to your hats, this is going to be a long post. I’ve been pretty excited about the new Hunger Games movie dropping this summer, and I’m even more excited to see a bunch of (what appear to be) quality replicas coming out.

Although there are a bunch of interesting pieces that totally immerse you in the flavor of Panem, there are equally un-cool pieces as well (I present to you The Hunger Games umbrella). You can view the whole line here. I went through and picked my must-haves from the list.

The Hunger Games Movie Jacket Cheap Version
This appears to be the cheapy version of the replica jacket, although at $49 it’s not terribly cheap. Perfect if you’re buying for someone who might outgrow it. It’s all nylon and definitely lightweight. I’ll probably gift it with the nylon bag.

The Hunger Games Movie Laptop Decals
Even though I know now one in District 12 was rocking laptops, I really love the district logo designs. Of course, I’d have to take a black sharpie to all the copyright info.

The Hunger Games Movie Necklace Single Chain “Match Case”In the book, Katniss gets a box of matches as part of her backpack of supplies from the cornucopia. I’m assuming this piece replaces those boxes in the film. The necklace is $19, but, unless you’re absolutely married to the idea of having one with the Hunger Games tag at the end, you can get the same case for $6 and add your own chain.

The Hunger Games Movie Necklace Compartment “Parachute”I absolutely love this. It’s got an interesting design and the parachute figures in all three books. I have no idea what the parachute will look like that this compartment attaches to, but I know I’ll be attempting to make it.

I continue to revist some of my older projects. This time, my Bellatrix skull necklace gets a redo. I’d always wanted to do it in metal, and I’d purchased a couple of metal bird skull necklaces (where they cast a real bird skull) but they didn’t look right. The WBshop even offered one for a short time, but it looked NOTHING like the necklace. When a friend mailed me a higher-res photo of Bellatrix, I knew I had to revisit my sculpt.

The Black Stallionhas been a guilty pleasure for as long as I can remember. (Side note: I think the movie poster is one of the most gorgeous movie poster designs.) The beginning scenes of the book where Alec meets and befriends The Black made the deepest impression on me. It was the same with the movie, and I have vivid memories of the poker game where rubies, gold, and finally a tiny bronze horse scuplture are thrown into a poker pot with Alec’s dad giving the tiny horse to his son. Yes, I always wanted my own Bucephalus. And now thanks to http://www.theblackstallion.com, I have one.

Been working on this one when I can’t sleep. I still have the back cover and spine to finish. I’m pretty sure the real text is not “Glorius Past, Present & Future” but “Glorious” wouldn’t fit. Any ideas?